Even Vlade Divac is sick of NBA players flopping

08 Oct
2012

Last week, Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops caught up with former Laker, Hornet, and Kings center Vlade Divac, to briefly discuss the NBA's move to artlessly curtail flopping:

During the Olympics you have met with NBA commissioner David Stern in order to discuss the matter of flopping. How do you comment the new anti-flopping rule?

"They started overdoing it, I think it was bad for basketball and it was a great decision to make basketball more clear."

There you go. The man routinely credited with turning defensive flopping into a go-to move has had enough.

[Also: Steve Nash bonds quickly with Kobe Bryant in Lakers debut]

The idea of flopping had been around for decades at the NBA level, but before Divac started throwing his arms back and diving to the floor midway through his career flopping wasn't really all that prevalent. Dubious charges were common, as the Chicago Bulls of the late 1990s often set up camp under their opponents in order to allow their aging bodies to earn the call, but it wasn't until Divac gained prominence after moving to Sacramento in 1999 that he and others started embellishing contact. Those Bulls, Knicks and Pistons teams took the contact. Vlade took some of it, and acted as if he took all of it.

He was smart to do so, because the refs (both then and now) couldn't keep up in their attempts to call every tiny bit of contact as mandated by the NBA. Now the NBA, as they often do, is attempting to overreact and go the other way as they stack judgment calls on top of judgment calls while keeping their league in the news during off hours.

We'd like it better if the NBA would start fining television stations for not airing more interviews with Vlade Divac.

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Tags: , , Divac, Eurohoops, , Kings center Vlade Divac, , , Nikos Varlas, Vlade Divac,
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Mark Ellis commits the worst baserunning mistake of 2012 (Video)

03 Oct
2012

OK, so there might be a little hyperbole in that headline. Surely there were other baserunners this season who made worst decisions in taking an extra base and were thrown out by an even greater distance than Mark Ellis was at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night.

When it comes to a bad judgment that's going to stick with everyone in the offseason, though, Ellis' eagerness surely takes the cake. The Dodgers second baseman tried to stretch a double into a triple in the seventh inning against the San Francisco Giants and, well, this happened:

Had Ellis made the right decision and stopped at second when he saw Angel Pagan pick up the ball, he would have represented the tying run at second with only one out. Instead he made the second out of the inning and created a lot of what-might-have-beens when Shane Victorino hit an honest-to-goodness triple to right field in the next at-bat. The Dodgers ended up losing 4-3 to eliminate themselves from NL wild-card contention on the second-to-last day of the season.

Ellis said he made a "bad read," while Dodgers manager Don Mattingly had a different explanation: "Yeah, I think he got excited," he told reporters.

From MLB.com:

"If anything, we all wanted it a little too much," Ellis said. "I think that happened with all of us."

Aware of the silence and emptiness in the home clubhouse at Dodger Stadium as he sat in his office, manager Don Mattingly praised his team's effort.

"I'm never going to fault a guy for wanting it too much," Mattingly said.

Indeed, it's easy to criticize Ellis when you're sitting at home in a quiet living room and the entire situation is laid out in front of you in high def. It's quite another thing to battle the adrenaline coursing through your veins as the ball bounces against the fence in deep center,  40,000-plus people go wild in Dodger Stadium and the Cardinals loss from earlier in the night rests in the back of your brain.

Ellis wasn't the only Dodger at fault, either. Chris Capuano only went three innings after giving up two homers to the least homer-happy team in the bigs and Matt Kemp went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts including one in the seventh with Victorino standing on third base.

Still, it's going to be hard for Dodgers fans not to replay that scene of Ellis picking the wrong time to show off his wheels. This picture of Ellis walking back toward the dugout pretty much says it all.

Are you ready for the postseason?
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Tags: , headline, , , , mistake,
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Good news for fans of AJ Allmendinger: He's completed NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy Road to Recovery program, and that means he's been reinstated by NASCAR. He's now eligible to drive once again at any level.

Allmendinger had been suspended indefinitely earlier this summer for testing positive for a still-unrevealed stimulant at the Kentucky race. Allmendinger and his team had initially called the test results into question, but once a second sample turned up the same result, he consented to NASCAR's judgment. He told a curious story about taking Adderall, but in the end, he didn't disagree with the sport's judgment.

The knock on Allmendinger was that he would follow in Jeremy Mayfield's footsteps, fighting every inch of the way. He didn't; he took the wiser route and is now back in the sport faster than perhaps anyone expected.

Of course, he returns to a NASCAR changed even since he was suspended in July. Joey Logano has taken over his old seat, and there's no guarantee of another coming available for him anytime soon. He's indicated that he'll take time to explore his options. But at least now he has them.

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